A chara, - Last Friday I drove from Dun Laoghaire to Castlegregory, Co Kerry, using the N7 and N27 routes. The weather was showery and the general road condition was slick with rain. Traffic was heavy with mile-long strings of cars travelling between 50 and 60 m.p.h. The journey of 220 miles took over six hours.
During this time I witnessed some of the worst driving I have seen in 40 years of using Irish roads. In all this time and for all this distance I did not see one garda nor one patrol car.
In the US you meet a patrol car every 20 miles. In Ireland it is quite normal to travel over 1,000 miles without encountering a Garda car.
It is obvious that gardaí have reneged on their duties in this regard and retreated to barracks. With the prospect of 2,000 people being slaughtered on Irish roads in the next five years this amounts to a dereliction of duty. And the politicians don't care. - Yours, etc.,
PETER MURRAY, Abbeydorney, Co Kerry.